This book is about logic and evidence and its antithesis, fallacies, and powerful rhetoric. This book provides a tool box of knowledge about decision-making and evaluating public policy that citizens need to know in order to make informed decisions about policy proposals.

List of Illustrations

List of Tables

Acknowledgments

Introduction: An Evidence-Based versus a Rhetoric-Based Approach to Understanding Public Policy

Part 1: Logic and Evidence versus Fallacies and Rhetoric

OneWhat Is an Evidence-Based Approach? Can Non-Existence be Proven?

TwoWhat Is an Evidence-Based Approach? Is Non-Proportionality Discrimination?

ThreeBasic Logic and Fallacies: Necessary versus Sufficient Conditions

FourEvidence, Economic Data, and How to Find It

FiveMore Fallacies

SixEvidence: What it Is, What it Is Not

SevenFallacies Based on Personal Attack

Part 2: Basic Knowledge for Decision-Making and Evaluating Policy

EightMaking Good Decisions and Good Policy: Relative versus Absolute, Opportunity Costs, and Marginalism

NineCertainty versus Uncertainty: Multiple Factors, Multiple Uncertain Outcomes, Polls and Their Interpretation

TenIndividual Preferences and Opportunities, and the State’s Role: Capitalism, Communism, (Democratic) Socialism, and the Welfare State

Bibliography

Index

About the Author